Director of Public Prosecutions v Parfett

[2021] VCC 248

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 20-01535

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JAKE PARFETT

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE GAYNOR
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	11 March 2021
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Parfett
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2021] VCC 248

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr D. Brown	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Ms J. Willard	Papa Hughes Lawyers

HER HONOUR: 

1Jake Parfett, you have pleaded guilty before me to two charges of theft, one charge of dangerous driving causing serious injury, one charge of failing to stop and render assistance after a motor vehicle accident, and you have also pleaded guilty to the summary charge of driving whilst disqualified which was uplifted for hearing before this court pursuant to s.145 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009. The facts underlying this offending are as follows:

2On 13 September, 2019, the owner of a blue Nissan 200SX motor vehicle, Charlton Pereira, parked his car outside a friend's house, and then went away for the weekend.  Sometime later that evening, or in the early hours of the following morning, you stole that car and those actions underlie Charge 1 on the indictment, theft of motor vehicle. 

3On 14 September, you went to a BP service station in Calder Park in the stolen car, filled it with petrol and drove off without paying.  You stole petrol to the value of $66.55 and those actions underlie Charge 2 on the indictment, theft of petrol.

4The next day, on the afternoon of Sunday 15 September, you drove at a fast speed down a suburban street, being 46 Border Boulevard, Sunbury.  You there met up with a young woman, Brittany Bottoms, who was driving another vehicle.  You drove at speed down the street.  You then entered an intersection roundabout in the wrong direction, on the wrong side of the road, met up with Ms Bottoms, had a conversation with her, and then went back down, as I read it, this same street at speed.

5Whilst you were doing that, there were a number of residents on the road, for one reason or another.  One of those, Matthew Taranto, who had seen you drive down the street and then saw you come back again, and concerned that you might cause injury to children who lived in the area, stepped on the road to raise his hand to you and indicate that you were driving too fast.

6You then struck Mr Taranto when he stepped on the road to wave his hand at you to slow down.  He was struck by the left hand side of your car.  He was flung into the air and landed on the nature strip.  You did not stop but kept going and disappeared from the scene.  The accident occurred outside Mr Taranto's family home and family members attended and he was transported to the Royal Melbourne Hospital. 

7There he required resuscitation with blood and fluids, in the Emergency Department, as he was unable to maintain his vital signs due to bleeding from his injury.  He was taken into Intensive Care and placed into an induced coma due to the life-threatening injuries that he suffered.  He remained in Intensive Care between 15 September and 27 September.  He was not discharged from hospital until 20 November 2019 and then he was released to the Epworth Rehabilitation Service.

8The injuries Mr Taranto suffered were truly horrific.  He has undergone, it would seem, a total of 19 operations as a result of the injuries suffered from the collision of your car with him.

9According to the reports, summarised in the prosecution opening, Mr Taranto suffered two rectal tears causing a leak in the bowel resulting in infection which developed into septicaemia resulting in septic cardiomyopathy.  In other words, his heart was involved.

10He required eight operations to repair those tears.  The opinion of Dr Mariseglia from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, is that as a result of this significant episode of sepsis, Mr Taranto who is aged 26 is likely to have an increased risk of early death. 

11In addition he had to be treated with a colostomy and a reversal will require a further operation.  He suffered a severe pelvic ring injury with multiple pelvis fractures requiring surgical intervention with internal and external fixation to repair those fractures,  and had to undergo four operations to repair them.

12He also suffered an open knee dislocation to his left knee, a fracture to his left kneecap and entrapment of the common peroneal nerve. 

13He underwent three surgeries to treat that knee injury which is likely to impact on Mr Taranto's ability to walk in the future and if he is able to walk, he may only be able to do so with aids. 

14I received a number of victim impact statements from Mr Taranto's mother and sisters to which I will later refer, but it is clear he remains severely debilitated from those injuries. 

15One of his sisters has become his full-time Carer.  It is clear from the victim impact statements he has continued to suffer suicidal ideation and it would appear unlikely that he will be able to be employed in the future. 

16In any event, as I have said, you left the scene and you were not arrested for three months, that being on 17 December.  In other words, you remained at large for three months. 

17You were interviewed at the Sunbury Police Station.  You were first assessed as being unfit to be interviewed for reasons that have not been explained to me, but in any event, you were taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for treatment, and you were interviewed the following day. 

18You denied seeing Brittany Bottoms on 15 September.  You remained mute when asked most questions regarding your involvement in the collision and you denied ever seeing or driving that vehicle.

19The matter was set down for a committal hearing, but a plea resolution was reached on the day of that hearing and no witnesses had to be cross-examined.

20The maximum penalty for dangerous driving causing serious injury is five years' imprisonment.  The maximum penalty for failing to stop immediately after an accident where serious injury occurs, is ten years' imprisonment.  The maximum penalty for theft is ten years' imprisonment, the maximum penalty for driving whilst disqualified is two years' imprisonment, or 240 penalty units. 

21As I said, victim impact statements were tendered by Mr Taranto's mother and three of his sisters.  It is quite clear from those victim impact statements, that the effect of the injuries upon Mr Taranto has been catastrophic.  I also received a victim impact statement from Mr Taranto himself. 

22Quite apart from dealing with the pain and debilitation, Mr Taranto is beset with the worry about how he will support himself in the future, how he will work. 

23He requires constant care by his sisters, one sister, in particular, has taken over the role.  All sisters and Mr Taranto's mother described Mr Taranto's despair at his situation.  He has had to be placed on suicide watch. 

24He continues to suffer, it would seem, from his victim impact statement, flashbacks from the collision which is a symptom of post-traumatic-stress disorder. 

25It is quite clear that these injuries, as I have said, were catastrophic in their effect upon Mr Taranto, continue to be, have affected his life expectancy, his work capacity and he has undergone multiple surgeries and, it appears, will require more. 

26The injuries, in my view, are about as serious a series of injuries as could be expected in an incident of this kind.

27I now turn to your personal circumstances.  You are 27 years of age.  You had a difficult childhood, in that your parents separated when you were young.  You did not resume contact with your father until you were 18.  You were raised by your mother in circumstances where there was poverty and she was reliant on various charities. 

28You were diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder when you were about nine.  You clearly had a difficult time at school, possibly because of that condition.  You were expelled from several schools.  You ended up at Lionel Hall in Richmond which is a special education facility for children who have been unable to undertake conventional education, but it was a school where a particularly lenient attitude was taken, usually due as I understand it, to the difficulties suffered by students there and after about three months, you simply stopped going. 

29You attended a TAFE in Broadmeadows where you studied Horticulture.  You then did very little till you were 18, but on reconnecting with your father, you moved to Western Victoria.  You lived with him, you got work during the wheat season unloading trucks and you did this work for three years, and you also cut wood with your grandfather for about six months.

30This appears, from what your counsel told me, to have been a productive time in your life, but you then returned to Melbourne when you were 22 and have not worked since.

31Your counsel described to me longstanding drug use, primarily methamphetamine and cannabis, but described this also as on and off.  It does not seem you had a frank addiction, but it would seem that since the age of 22, you have basically lived a very unproductive and idle life where you have friends who use drugs, you have not worked, you life seems to have simply stayed in the one place in that time, if I could put it that way.

32Concerningly, you have a long history of criminal involvement beginning in 2011 in the Nhill Children's Court, where you were dealt with for criminal damage, theft of a motor vehicle, arson, resisting police and drinking.  You were placed on probation. 

33In 2012, you were fined for theft of a motor vehicle and going equipped to steal.  In 2015, you were dealt with by the Broadmeadows Magistrates' Court for assault by kicking, unlawful assault, threatening assault to prevent lawful apprehension and stating a false name.  You were placed on a community corrections order for 15 months.  In 2016, you were dealt with for contravention of that community corrections order which was then varied. 

34On 14 September in 2016, you were placed on another community corrections order for handling stolen goods, failing to answer bail, unlicensed driving using an unregistered vehicle and failing to give a right signal for long enough. 

35I also failed to  mention that in January of that year you were dealt with for assault with a weapon, but in relation to the matters I have just mentioned, as I have said, you were placed on another community corrections order. 

36In June of 2017, you were dealt with for contravening a community corrections order.  You were sentenced to seven days' imprisonment and 14 days imprisonment respectively.  You then appealed that and that sentence was set aside and you were fined. 

37In September 2018, you were again dealt with, this time in the County Court, for contravening a community corrections order, and you were gaoled for a month. 

38Most concerningly, on 30 November 2018, you were dealt with on a consolidation of charges including failing to stop a vehicle on police direction, driving in a manner dangerous, a handling stolen goods, theft of a motor vehicle, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, theft from a shop obtaining property by deception and another charge of driving whilst disqualified, failing to answer bail, contravening bail and charges relating to using an unregistered motor vehicle on a highway, forging a registration label, failing to stop before a yellow line, stating false name and address, forging an identifying number required by the RSA, fraudulently using a registration label and so on. 

39You received an aggregate of 140 days imprisonment and were then released on a community corrections order.  I sought information as to the fact scenario underlying that offending, and it is clear that is largely arose from your driving, the reckless conduct endangering serious injury charge arising from you taking off in a vehicle after being directed to remain where you were by police. 

40Then finally, on 18 July 2019, you were gaoled for 74 days for extortion with threat to inflict injury.  Your counsel informed me that you were released from gaol in the month prior to the offending that has brought you before this court.

41You have been remanded in custody since your arrest on this matter.  You appear to have done well in gaol.  You have undertaken a Certificate I and Certificate II in Horticulture and you work in the nursery at Fulham and it would appear this is a career path that is open to you when you eventually leave gaol.

42You have written a letter of contrition to the court which I regard as genuine.  I accept that you are remorseful for your actions.  The comment I have to make is who would not be in the circumstances of your offending, and the horrific life-long injuries - you have inflicted on a relatively young man.

43You continue to enjoy the support of your mother, who wrote a reference to the court and I am informed by your counsel that it is your intention on release from custody to return to the country to live with your father, hopefully to resume the only period in your life where you have led a productive existence involving work and it is to be hoped that that is the course that you do take.

44The offending, as I have said on a number of occasions, is extremely serious.  The maximum penalty for dangerous driving causing serious injury is only five years, but the serious injury involved, as I have already stated, could hardly be worse. 

45You have sentenced, effectively sentenced a young man to a lifetime of suffering and debilitation.  There is absolutely no reason that was proffered to me, nor could there be one, which in any way describes your decision to drive in the way that you did down a quiet suburban street on a Sunday afternoon.  You simply, as it seems to me, planted the foot. 

46You were driving so fast that you collided in the catastrophic way you did with Mr Taranto who was doing nothing more than to indicate you should slow down, which of course, you should have.  You then simply left the scene and remained at large for three months. 

47I am satisfied that you have an appalling prior driving history which includes prior convictions for driving in a manner dangerous and driving in a way which endangered serious injury, multiple charges of driving an unregistered vehicle, unlicensed driving, driving whilst disqualified. 

48It is quite clear that you have not had any regard for the road laws which are designed to protect pedestrians and other road users. 

49It is difficult for me to ascertain what your prospects of rehabilitation are.  You have done well in gaol, but the concern is that whilst you may do well in the strict structure of gaol, whether you will manage your life when you are released.

50You have a long and continuous criminal history going back to 2011 going back to 2011.  It is difficult for me to regard your prospects of rehabilitation as anything more than guarded. 

51You do not have a good employment history.  You do not have a history which would cause this court to look at your prospects of rehabilitation in any higher light than the way I have outlined them.  You may do well, you may not.  It is impossible to say.  It may be you have been so shaken by the damage you have caused another human being that this causes you to drop the idle, life of unemployment and offending that you clearly engaged in for years and years, and to actually seek employment and make a go of your life in the future.  It is impossible to say.

52I do not entirely disregard your prospects of rehabilitation but I do not regard them as particularly significant as a factor that I take into account in ascertaining the appropriate sentence that this court should impose.

53What I am satisfied of is the principle of protection of the community is one which has a large role to play in the sentencing exercise before me, that is, that you have long been a menace on the roads, this has resulted in terrible injury to your victim and the community requires protection from you and the way you have conducted yourself in a car in the past. 

54I am satisfied that specific deterrence, that is, a sentence of imprisonment which causes you to reflect on your previous behaviour and to act upon it, is a relevant sentencing principle to which I should have regard.

55Undoubtedly general deterrence, that is the sending of a message to the community that persons who behave as you do, who drive in the criminal fashion that you did, can only expect a stern response from this court should they offend in that way, and is also a sentencing principle of significant relevance in this this case.

56Just punishment is another factor to which this court should have regard as well as denunciation of your conduct.  It has not been suggested to me that I should deal with you in any way other than by a term of imprisonment. 

57In sentencing you I take into account your plea of guilty which has saved your gravely debilitated victim the trauma of giving evidence and being cross-examined, and you have saved the community the time and expense of a trial.

58I accept, as I have said, that you are remorseful for your offending.  I accept that you are a relatively young man, but your prior criminal history and the gravity of this offending and the fact that fled the scene and remained at large for three months does not, as I have already stated at some length, cause me to have any particularly positive opinion of your prospects of rehabilitation.

59Taking into account both the mitigatory factors and the other factors which tell against you, including what I accept was serious criminal offending separate in terms of the charges: that is, in addition to impacting with Mr Taranto as a result of your appalling driving, you then left the scene. 

60I accept the submission by the prosecution that even though those two offences essentially arose from the same course of conduct, the serious criminality attached to each could be termed 'identifiable separate criminality' and that there should be significant cumulation between them, that is, between the charge of dangerous driving causing serious injury, and failing to stop and tender assistance.  I therefore sentence you as follows:

61On Charge 1, you are sentenced to nine months' imprisonment;

62On Charge 2, the theft of petrol, you are sentenced to one month imprisonment;

63On Charge 3, you are sentenced to three years' imprisonment; 

64On Charge 4, you are sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment;

65On the charge of driving whilst disqualified, you are sentenced to nine months imprisonment;

66The base sentence will be the sentence imposed on Charge 3.

67I order that 12 months of the sentence imposed on Charge 4 and that six months' of the sentence imposed on Charge 1, and the summary charge be served cumulatively to the sentence imposed on Charge 3, giving a total effective sentence of five years. 

68I order that you serve a minimum term of three years, before becoming eligible for parole. 

69I declare that 409 days have already been served of this sentence by way of pre-sentence detention. 

70Pursuant to s.6AAA I declare that had you not pleaded guilty, I would have sentenced you to a total effective sentence of seven years and ordered that you serve a minimum term of five years. 

71The disposal order will be signed.  Thank you.  Is there anything further.  I thank counsel for their assistance and I also thank the Taranto family for the victim impact statements which they compiled.  Yes.  Yes, thank you very much.  Is there anything else I need to attend to. 

72MS WILLARD:  Did Your Honour talk about the loss of licence, disqualification period. 

73HER HONOUR:  Yes, all right, thank you.  In relation to Charge 1, all licences are cancelled and you are disqualified from obtaining a further licence for a period of one year, and in relation to Charge - is it Charge 4 isn't it, yes - in relation to Charge 3, all licences are cancelled.  You are disqualified from obtaining a licence for a period of four years. 

74In relation to Charge 4, all licences are cancelled and you are disqualified from obtaining a further licence for a period of four years. 

75And in relation to the summary charge of drive whilst disqualified, your licence is cancelled for a period of 12 months.  They will all run concurrently, so there is an overall loss of licence for a period of four years.  All right, thank you. 

76MR BROWN:  If Your Honour pleases.

77HER HONOUR:  Thank you.

78MS WILLARD:  As Your Honour pleases.

79HER HONOUR:  Yes, thank you.  We will adjourn. 

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